Kids Really Like Glitter

This week and last week has been all about the art projects. This past Friday I went into Mrs. Jones’ 3rd grade classroom to talk about aquatic macroinvertebrates and how they are important to shorebirds. We also talked about shorebird adaptations and I had the students build their own macroinvertebrate. It was amazing to see their imaginations invent these creatures. This Wednesday I went into Mrs. Vogel’s 4th grade classroom and we played the great migration game and decorated shorebirds. They had tons of fun, and their birds turned out fabulous. I can’t wait to see everything together in one big poster/mural. In the middle of this project I really felt like maybe I bit off more than I could chew, but now that I have all of the components together and have visited the classrooms I’m glad I took this on. Even if it doesn’t turn out exactly how I envisioned it, I’m still happy that I got to teach kids about shorebirds and give them a chance to just create. Growing up, those opportunities were so important to me. I think it’s such a great way to introduce kids to topics in nature and get them interested. I hope these projects got them stoked about the shorebird festival! I mean, this amazing natural event happens right in their backyard! They live in an amazing place and it’s up to us to help them see that. Go nature!

“Its name is Morph. It has weird things in its eyes that help it see far. It hides in the ground and when it’s safe it pops its head out to watch for predators. It has suction cups to stick to rocks!”

“The two horns on the side are used to spray black ink on predators’ faces. While it’s trying to get the black out, it drills down into the earth to get away from its predators. It uses its teeth to bite into enemies to look like them. So, it bites into a substance such as earth or a shark, then it blends into that substance so it looks like it!”

“The real name is hidy…something. The nickname is hideous bug. The toothpicks are the legs. It isn’t very good at jungle camouflage. The straws are for catching food and the net is for straining food to get tiny stuff, and it can shoot it out at predators to catch them and they sometimes eat them. The feathers attract predators and help them get away from predators by shooting them out of its body as a distraction. This bubble is a food holder.

This is what the second stage looks like. It doesn’t really have a defense, but they’re really fast and they can dig. They pick up food with their hairs.

This is a male baby and this is a female baby. The babies have a defense-they both have stingers!”